Rachel Schwarz

I completed my BSc studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel while working as an assistant in a veterinary clinic. My passion is studying and understanding the animal life around us, and the forces shaping them. This encouraged me to pursue an academic career.

I am now completing my MSc studies at the department of Zoology, Tel Aviv University, Israel, under the supervision of Professors Shai Meiri (Tel Aviv University) and Panayiotis Pafilis (University of Athens). During my MSc my colleagues and I conducted research on the reptile fauna of several Greek islands. My project focused on finding the evolutionary drivers of reproduction trait variability of insular Kotschyi's gecko populations. The research included collecting specimens and ecological data, such as population density and food abundance from over 30 Cyclades islands and mainland sites in Greece. I conducted reproduction experiments in the lab to explore clutch size, egg volume, incubation time and hatchling size and growth. My general goal is to evaluate how the attributes of the islands affect and shape these traits in this gecko species.

I plan to start my PhD studies this coming winter at Tel Aviv University. My research will focus on the ecological and evolutionary adaptations of lizard traits in the eastern Mediterranean region. The proposed research will be an integral part of my doctoral studies.

There is a group working on that, soon to publish a paper about it, but you can look at the paper by Kasapidis et al. 2005 named: "The phylogeography of the gecko Cyrtopodion kotschyi (Reptilia: Gekkonidae) in the Aegean archipelago" in this link: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1055790305000448.

Thank you very much!
Kotschyi's gecko is known for laying their eggs in communal laying sites. It may be indeed interesting to test if the different populations (from trees and rocks) prefer laying their eggs under peeling tree barks or under rocks and to see the connection with temperature and humidity. Thanks for the idea!

Hi Cindy!
This species is active throughout the year, in the morning and evening during summer and during the middle of the day during wilnter. They are pretty flexible with their temperature preference, and it is normally between 20-30 degrees Celsius. During winter however, they can also be active at temperatures of between 12-20 degrees. Similar to other reptiles they bask in the sun in order to get to activity temperatures. More information is available in the paper:
Valakos, E. D. (1989) Thermal ecology of Cyrtodactylus kotschyi (Steindachner, 1870)(Sauria-Gekkonidae) in the insular ecosystems of the Aegean. Herpetological Journal, 1, 396-399.
It can be found in this link: http://old.biol.uoa.gr/enphysg/pdf/HerJour%201989.pdf